where the happiness begins
by elderberrys
Summary: An afternoon of messy healing, understanding and quarrels; friendships begin to bloom. - — Noelle, Yuno & Asta.


**note**: This is set sometime after the Royal Knight Selection Exams arc, but before all the elf stuff that happens in the much later chapters, it very much deviates itself from canon a bit, so please take that in consideration. Sylph is also toned down a bit in this, call it ooc if you like, I just feel like she would be very supportive of Yuno's friendships with Asta and Noelle as long as she can see him happy and having fun!  
**note2**: Anyways, please enjoy this very silly fic about three of my favorite kids, I'm so sad Tabata doesn't have them working together more, I feel like all three would be so good altogether, I also didn't mean for it to have slight angst, but we needed some more development between these three.  
**note3**: title taken from a crj song, do with that what you will

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"Honestly both of you would be so lost without me, if I wasn't there to save both of your necks, something terrible would've happened," Noelle nags, as she clacks together the two tiny pincers between her fingers in a threatening motion. Asta tenses up when she touches her fingers to his back to begin carefully plucking out each individual shard of glass lodged there.

Yuno tunes her out, looking out of the window of the medic ward.

"Are you even listening?" Noelle's voice breaks through his thoughts and Yuno turns his head to her, her eyebrow twitching as she has that same look from earlier—a visage of persistence and annoyance. It's an interesting mix.

"No," he responds simply and Noelle's face sours as she gets up from her stool.

"Well, let me repeat it. Don't ever try fighting like this ever again. You hear me? You can't just go on without me, we're a team! Magic Knights fight together, especially after someone this huge with magic power. We're all offensive fighters with no support except for maybe sylph but even she got badly hurt, honestly do I need to spell it out for you two?"

Yuno sighs almost exasperated by her winded speech, but she's right. They did act irrationally, leaving her to tend to the other enemies and completely get wrapped up in someone twice his and Asta's magical abilities.

It's insane really, the both of them—the three of them all have leveled up and trained to be unstoppable, yet there's mages much powerful than the three of them combined. It's frustrating, but it must be even more so for Noelle, when he and Asta act so recklessly.

Yuno glances away from her scolding look and towards the window, listening to the birds sing an afternoon tune.

"Sorry, Noelle," Asta mumbles against his arm and Noelle looks at him, his face hidden from both of their views but you can hear the sincerity in his voice.

Noelle softens, her features relaxing, eyes sparkling. Yuno catches this, watches the two of them interact. The gentle lift of Noelle's smile as Asta tells her he always appreciates her help and support when it's needed on the battlefield.

_So this is the girl who he trusts,_ Yuno thinks. At first he thought of her as noisy, and she definitely is, but she's reliable and hardworking with immense abilities.

They worked together during the selection exams and she had scored for their team, it was because he had that little faith in his team like Asta who always held others in high regards, believing in them.

It's something Yuno had always admired from his childhood friend and rival, it's something he works on countlessly. Noelle is important, especially to Asta. She's family and he realizes this is exactly what he must see her as too. Asta never asked for him to, but he knows better, he knows the Black Bulls are his new family.

Yuno feels much better with this thought, proud that Asta had grown attached to others.

He thinks back on the times he's had with his squad, the Golden Dawn, known for their strength and elegance, in high ranks above any other Magic Knight squad, but the Black Bulls were the real heroes, genuine and good people among them as he looks at Asta and Noelle.

Yuno realizes this very well.

**i.**

The question hangs on his tongue without meaning to, but the curiosity gets the best of him after laying there alone with his thoughts as Noelle works on them, in stern concentration.

"Where's Mimosa anyway, and why isn't she healing us?" Yuno asks, breaking the silence. He tilts his head to look at Noelle, still using her water magic to cool down the pain, Asta mumbles something and Noelle's back is turned away from Yuno's gaze.

"She has to tend to the others' wounds, I think she's also figuring out how to make her healing magic stretch upon just more than one person and being able to try to fit as many others." Yuno figures that's a good response but something in Noelle's tone draws him in that makes him pry.

"You? When did you learn healing magic? Last time I checked you couldn't even control your magic." It comes out much crueler than he meant it to, from his peripheral he could see the shift in his friend.

Asta moves, ready to lift his head but Noelle pushes her magic onto him, shoving him back down on the bed as Asta grumbles out angrily; his arms flailing, possibly ready to defend Noelle from Yuno's rebuke.

"Don't move, Dorksta!" She snaps, as he settles down, neither say anything for a while and Yuno feels the plunge of guilt deep in his stomach. He learned better from Father Orsi and Sister Lily to be respectful and kind, it had just came out more coarse than he realized.

Yuno swallows, thinking of apologizing when Noelle swivels around, eyeing him, her eyebrow twitching.

Yuno can hear Asta snoring, assuming she's probably already finished with him and moving onto Yuno's wounds—he notices it took her a long amount of time to tend to their injuries than it would have for Mimosa.

"I'm sorry—" Noelle cuts him off with a look as she sits back down, Yuno knowing when to be quiet.

"Don't even think about it," she utters, her magic swivels in a circular motion, encompassing an unconscious sylph, Yuno watches the water form and shift around the wind spirit.

"I learned a bit of healing magic from old family books, alright? Since I have water magic it has an affinity to Mimosa's healing so she taught me how make it into a cooling balm to ease the pain," she explains.

He blinks up at the ceiling, listening to her movements, there's suddenly a change in tension that makes the hair on his arms stand on end as he senses her aura, her magic completely darkens. Noelle's eyes shimmer as she looks at Bell in the ball of water, the blue framing the tiny spirit in a cocoon to help some of her own injuries.

"I was a bit too late, wasn't I?" Noelle whispers, it's the first time he's heard her so quiet.

Yuno regards her for a moment and thinks she's putting too much on herself. Noelle rarely shows people her true feelings, her thoughts; her _blame_.

He knows Asta must get some of these views, but Yuno himself? He was never closer to her as he is with Asta or even his own team, Noelle if anything, is just an acquaintance.

"Yes, you were," Yuno says and Noelle flinches, her water magic gently moving sylph back down into the covers next to Yuno.

"You still came, you still lended us as much aid as you could, we didn't predict this outcome. It's all on us." Yuno reminds her, chiding her to understand that sometimes things go out of control, sometimes you make mistakes—you take too long and things happen in a blink of an eye.

Yuno shifts, sitting up as slowly as possible, not realizing Noelle's magic surrounds him, supporting him as he holds his waist, the bandages beginning to show blotches of blood.

"I know, but every second, every minute matters! I'm sorry," Noelle's expression borders on pain the anxiety seeping in her eyes, the emotions are intense reminding Yuno of Asta, from that time when he got severely hurt as a child. When Asta was desperate, running out to him; then later the scene changes to reveal an Asta who's scuffed and hurt badly. Asta smiling brightly as he lends him a hand.

Yuno mirrors the past gesture as he looks at Noelle and smiles, the tiniest of smiles, his lips lifting, a white flag, but one of understanding.

"You got us out of there, the captains came in time to stop the threat; you saved us, Noelle."

Yuno and Asta on the ground, sylph no longer moving, the flicker of her light fading. Asta beginning to move back up, blood covering his mouth, his head, his eyes. Yuno doing much the same, a gash on his side, the teetering of their movements.

She gasps, the tears falling down her cheeks as she remembers vividly the moments it happened.

Noelle thought quickly as she enclosed them in the Sea Dragon's Lair, having come a long way without the use of any magic, she was able to send a Sea Dragon's roar at the enemy distracting them.

Yami's voice breaking through, telling them to get out of there, to find Magna and Luck on the way out and to rush them to the medic team.

The others in the Golden Dawn and the Black Bulls all hurt, wounded. There were so many casualties, the groans of pain and her completely unscathed, unharmed. The guilt pressing down on her conscious as she thinks she should've been there.

Yuno breaks through her thoughts, the light smile still on his face, his expression softer than she's ever seen it before. He's thankful and he's alive, she can hear Asta's snoring, his breathing and sylph moving from the corner of her eye, watching her and Yuno's interaction. The wind spirit looked relieved.

Noelle wipes her tears and grins, as brightly as possible and feels a weight off her shoulders as Yuno looks at her, the smile so similar to that time, when Asta's hand glowed in the sun his smile radiating hope and promise.

Asta lifts his head, waking up from his short nap and realizing that Noelle had finished healing him. He sees Yuno and Noelle out the corner of his eye, hand in hand.

Asta beams, his lips curving to a grin. "You two—"

Noelle jolts and Yuno blinks looking past her to see Asta with an all knowing expression.

"You two look cozy," he teases, his lips curving to be very feline like, similar to a cheshire cat.

"Shut up, Dorksta!" Noelle shouts, her voice increasing in volume and could be heard throughout the building.

"Are you going to heal me or should I stay like this until I bleed out?" Yuno asks, his head tilting as Noelle turns red in the face and her water magic begins to spin in agitated spirals gaining traction to possibly splash him.

"Hush you, I'm getting to it!" The stream weaves around him, cooling down the pain and slowly taking the bandages free from his body as he watches the wounds begin to close in on themselves, Noelle still stubbornly red as Asta laughs.

Bell watches this, healed and much more exuberant, whispers in Yuno's ear, "You seem happy." Yuno turns to her and the wind spirit looks coy as she glances between a hollering Asta and a Noelle ready to lunge at him, her face brighter than any tomato she's seen.

"I am. I'm thankful."

"Good, it's the first time in a while since I've seen you with an expression like that. It's nice, Yuno," she comments and Yuno considers it for a moment, realizing she's right.

"I suppose, I'm glad to be alive."

Yuno watches a screeching Noelle wanting badly to take down a shirtless Asta who laughs loudly, the afternoon sun beginning to set casting orange hues in their room, as the wind spirit moves to the window sill to sit, at ease with the evening's events.

**ii.**

"Noelle, Asta, and Yuno, I'm here finally, I'm sorry it was such a long wait, I hope Noelle was able to clean you both up so I can get the much bigger wounds." Mimosa calls, gently knocking, she hears nothing at first and glances around the halls.

"Hello?"

Silence, except for a soft noise that sounded much like a snore.

Mimosa carefully pushes the door, wincing at the audible creak, she blinks, eyes wide as she sees the sight before her.

Yuno on his back; eyes closed, Asta in a chair, with a slap mark on his cheek, snoring away as his head is laid down on Yuno's bed. Mimosa shifts to see Noelle sitting next to him, her quiet breathing as she holds Asta's hands and Yuno holds her other one. Mimosa smiles, noticing Bell in the same dormant state as the others—all three resting easily.

She hears Klaus approaching asking what's wrong and she simply points to what has her so attentive, so happy.

"Oh? _That's_ rare," Klaus says, pushing up his glasses.

Mimosa leans against the doorway, her plant magic wrapping around them, swaddling them in her dream healing flower basket. "To keep them safe?" Klaus asks and Mimosa nods, letting the magic sprinkle over them to get the rest of the wounds Noelle may have missed.

"Thank you, Noelle," Mimosa says quietly, as she leaves the room, Klaus gently shutting the door.

"They seem to be happy and doing well, don't you think?" Klaus remarks, content and Mimosa sighs, letting out a deep breath.

"It's been a long day, let's get some rest, Klaus," she smiles and the taller boy nods agreeing, as they head down the hall together.

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thank you for reading!


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